


In the Field Below

by stardropdream



Category: Shin Shunka-den | Legend of Chun Hyang
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 18:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chun Hyang watches the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Field Below

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ September 4, 2009.

“Watching the stars?” he greeted.   
  
Chun Hyang jumped in her surprise and swiveled her head around to glare up at Mong Ryong, eyes narrowed and frowning deeply. He laughed, far too used to such an expression, and made himself comfortable sitting down beside her. Chun Hyang never took her eyes off him, glaring and pursing her lips together when he sat down a bit too close to her. Again, he laughed, much to her chagrin, and patted her atop her head.  
  
The girl swatted at it, hand curling into a fist, threatening a punch the next time he came too close.  
  
“What’s it to you?” she demanded.   
  
“So defensive!” the man said with a melodramatic sigh as he cushioned his chin in his hand, propping up one knee to make himself more comfortable as he tipped his head back to regard the stars. “It was just a question.”   
  
“Hmph,” was her eloquent reply, and she watched him watch the stars. When his eyes slanted towards her, she quickly looked away, scowling. “So what if I was?”   
  
“It’s a nice way to pass the time,” Mong Ryong said with a wide smile, cheerful enough to annoy Chun Hyang but not quite enough for even her to justify punching him in the back of the head.   
  
“I guess.”  
  
“Learning your constellations?”   
  
“I already know them,” Chun Hyang muttered, and glared at Mong Ryong, face twisting into a perpetual look of annoyance.   
  
Mong Ryong, once again, laughed. “Of course.”   
  
“I was just…” Chun Hyang began, then saw Mong Ryong’s pleasantly cheerful expression and looked away with a huff. “Never mind.”   
  
“What is it?” he pressed.  
  
“I said never mind!”   
  
When she looked back at him, he was smiling (obnoxiously so) and tilting his head to the side as if he were the innocent traveler he claimed to be—Chun Hyang knew better, and looked away with a huff, ignoring him.   
  
“So mean!” he lamented and laid back down on the grass, tucking his arms behind his head to watch the stars better without having to crane his neck.   
  
“You’ll get over it,” she decided, speaking confidently, knowing he was doing nothing but acting like an idiot for the sake of acting like one. She sighed and drew her knees to her chest.   
  
They sat in silence.   
  
“When I was little, Omoni said that when we were born, we were each given a star to call our own,” she offered, cautious, eyeing her traveling companion for any sign of laughter or amusement. The moment he made fun of her was the moment she smashed his face in with her heel. He didn’t say anything though, and she was grateful that he didn’t turn his attention away from the sky, though she knew he was listening closely.   
  
An awkward silence followed this and she sat, fidgeting, blushing, and waiting. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, so long that she thought that perhaps he’d fallen asleep, the bastard—but when she glanced his way, his eyes were scanning the stars.   
  
“If you’re not going to say anything, I don’t know why I bother telling you anything,” she groused.   
  
“Which star is yours?” he asked without acknowledging her complaining. His expression was oddly serious.   
  
She paused, studying his face, before jerking her head up towards the sky and pointing. “That one. It’s the pair there. Mine’s the one on the left.”   
  
“A pair of stars,” Mong Ryong mused.  
  
“Yeah, the others are spread out, but those two are close to one another… so they keep each other company,” Chun Hyang said quietly, and smiled softly as she recalled the day her mother told her about her own special star, the star she was born under.   
  
“The left star, huh…” Mong Ryong mused, before he smiled, light and almost not there in the darkness. “It shines very brightly.”  
  
Chun Hyang, for some reason that was beyond her, blushed at that.   
  
Mong Ryong closed his eyes, musing over his own private thoughts that Chun Hyang knew he would not share, before he shifted, pushing himself up and resting back on his elbows. He leaned over, getting into Chun Hyang’s personal space and looking rather serious about it.  
  
Chun Hyang blinked at him. “W-what?”   
  
He kept watching her, not saying anything, before his face melted into a dopey grin. “Am I the star on the right, Chun Hyang?”   
  
The girl stared at him, processing this request for a grand total of two seconds, before her face exploded in a vibrant red color, from rage.   
  
“Y-YOU! NO!” she shouted and tried to kick at him. He rolled away, crying out about Chun Hyang’s cruelty—but the effect was lost, as he was laughing and grinning widely.   
  
“Ahahaha, Chun Hyang, you’re too mean sometimes,” he laughed, batting away her flailing kicks with the back of his hand. He captured her hand and his smile softened around the edges. “The right star is your mother’s, isn’t it?”   
  
Chun Hyang froze in surprise, and she nodded, before remembering to reclaim her hand, jerking it away from him.   
  
“Yeah. She said that it was an older star, but it would always be there to watch over the other star.”   
  
Chun Hyang looked back up at the stars, expression shadowed by her hair and from the night’s natural darkness.   
  
“That it is,” Mong Ryong agreed, still smiling, though without any silliness as before. “So even now, she is watching over you.”   
  
“Y-yeah…”  
  
“She would be very proud of how brightly that star shines,” he said, without any irony.   
  
Chun Hyang clenched her eyes shut a moment, inhaled deeply, and almost smiled.   
  
Instead, she kicked at Mong Ryong’s head before stomping away, face still a bright red, this time less from rage and more from embarrassment. “Who asked you?”


End file.
